From the Next Lionesses to Rowing the Atlantic – Meet Jennifer Cullom.
February 23, 2023
Physio for the England Women’s U 16s football team, GB and England Hockey Teams, Rowing and Gymnastics squads AND She has ROWED THE ATLANTIC!!
Spotlight on Jennifer Cullom a (relatively) new face to the BWT team of highly specialised therapists.
As those of you who have met Jennifer will know (pictured second from the left)that Jen has an extraordinary pedigree in treating elite sportspeople as an English Institute of Sport physio and team GB physio working with GB and England Hockey, supporting the teams to medal at both the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and the Commonwealth Games 2022. She has experience working across a number of Olympic Sports and has worked with the British Olympic Association as part of Team GB’s medical team at the European Youth Olympics this summer. She will continue to work in Olympic Sport alongside her role with BWT
Jen has recently returned from supporting GB rowers and received this fantastic testimonial from both the Olympic Head Coach and High Performance Coach for the men’s teams, excepts from which are shown below:
‘Dear Jen,
We just wanted to thank you for your important contribution to the British Rowing Olympic Men’s Altitude Camp in Sierra Nevada from 5th January 2023 to 20th January 2023. . . . .
‘Your willingness and ability to jump in with both feet and hit the ground at full speed on day one meant that as a coaching team we were able to focus on the athletes and the running of the camp. . We were very impressed by your ability to lead the group each morning . . . . and your diligence in working all hours to address athletes problems. We would like to thank you for both addressing athletes current issues but also addressing athlete prehab for their return and would be keen to work with you again in the future if the opportunity arises.’
Reflecting on this on her return Jen comments –
‘I hugely value the time to go and work in elite sport. The environment and the teams demand out the box clinical reasoning and treatment skills and there is no doubt that it enables me to step up and develop as a clinician. I’ve also felt excited to come back into clinic after, with new ideas to bring into patients’ treatment and rehab, which I love!
Thank you (BWT Physio) for supporting me in continuing to work in elite sport whilst at BWT and I wanted to share that it is also valued by the teams I work with.’
Women’s football is going from strength to strength ( The Lionesses have completed a 29 game run without losses at the time of writing) and, as part of that development at national level, Jen has also worked as a physio at The Women’s U16 England UEFA International Development tournament.
Jen was presented with a signed pennant, look out for the names as she says they are . . .’the rising stars of football – I’ll be watching out for those names making an entrance into the women’s senior team in the coming years!’
Now we move on to the rowing challenge, as not only content with treating at a high performing level, Jennifer had the idea during lockdown to row across the Atlantic in The Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge!!
Whilst completing her Masters degree, Jennifer became the physiotherapist for The Oxford University Boat Club for The Boat Race, as well as working with the GB Rowing Team providing physio for their training camps across Europe.
So the inspiration was there, just the fundraising, planning and training to go. One Ocean Crew was born www.oneoceancrew.org The team raised a significant amount of money to race with every penny aiding the One Ocean Crew campaign to ‘Inspire and Protect’ with ALL race proceeds going to their charity – https://searangers.org/
You can be inspired by watching a video of her race https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHVcibGXWJ0
The documentary follows the journey of Jen and her crew. A the story of pain, sleep deprivation and sheer guts that took 4 women to succeed in rowing 3000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean in Dec 2021 – Jan 2022.
It took 40 days, 4 hours and the team came in as winners of the Female Class, winning the Murden Trophy.
Ever humble, despite her remarkable achievements, Jennifer says,
‘We are a team of four very oardinary(!) women and it really is a story that we hope will encourage people to realise that they are already capable of achieving anything, you just have to put in the hard work to make it happen.’
Jennifer has given motivational and inspirational presentations, drawing on her experiences of this trip. She is also a wealth of knowledge on training, event preparation and injury prevention.
The spotlight will continue to shine on Jennifer. BWT Physio is proud to include such a talent in OUR team.
To book your appointment with Jennifer click the book now tab with your enquiry, or fill out the contact form if you would like Jennifer to speak at your business.